openspaceman

Gary it was worth the wait and just the sort of reply I was hoping for. Sad you weren't enjoying a holiday somewhere more exotic than bed-rest but good to see you on form.

A swallowtail butterfly, I don't think I have seen one in the wild.

Nice looking sticks but they'll be a pig to split by hand How come one ended up through the fence?

As far as I can remember all one.

I'm following this as I stripped one down as the shaft was bent, tried to straighten it and never did get it back together again.

The mind boggles Great work though

No need I'm not applying to do work on a preserved tree, just musing. I hope Gary is on holiday enjoying himself as he normally makes good replies.

Either my writing is poor or your comprehension is. The first point I was querying is that the applicant (not me the chap I work for occasionally) says the same form is used for notifying work in a conservation area or applying for permission to work on a tree with a preservation order. If so he says you cannot get past the bit which requests an expert report. Which is why he posted a notification rather than do it online. I haven't tried. The other thing was pertaining to what qualification is a requirement for a tree report when applying to work on a tree with a preservation order. On the surface it looks like a restrictive practice dreamt up by planners to give jobs for the boys. A tree report by our local TO with his consultancy hat on starts at £500.

Just revisiting this @Gary Prentice: does the time of 8 weeks for non determination only start after the application is validated? I'm a bit interested as my boss has just tried to make a 211 notification via the planning portal, in fact he gave up and handed it in by letter. He says what it showed was that an application via the portal cannot proceed without a tree report and that has to be by someone with a "qualification". So no point trying to make a notification as it seems to use the same criteria as needed for a TPO application. In a past job I seldom worried about TPOs as we were working on behalf of a statutory undertaking, I'd liaise with the TO and then getb on with the work. My friend says he writes a report and signs it off and it's never queried, he has a BSc in geology. So if the application gets made, is validated and then the report is queried does everything have to go back to day one? Or will the PINS judgement take no note of a poor reason for the work.

I can't see hauling that onto the roof of the County being possible but do like the grease chuck and pressure release. Also no way to foot operate when lying under to do prop shafts

Apart from directing weight equally onto each plank to restrain it the stickers control water loss and I imagine without them water is lost quicker from the ends which means the ends become more liable to split in the early stages. The miller on the estate where I started work would always use softwood sticks on hardwoods (and maybe vice versa) . Also I would expect to use thicker stickkers in Scotland than in Surrey as it is drier and warmer here so moisture can move out too fast.

I wouldn't expect so but joinery is not my thing. I think the stack should always have a sticker flush with both ends.

That's good make the new poster feel at home. What's wrong with driving MGs? I do. Anyway to the OP, It seems the council own the trees, the roots have become a nuisance and the council are aware of this and will mitigate the problem by felling, presumably once you made them aware of the problem. If they were previously unaware of the roots lifting the patio they could do no more and their liability is limited.

If it's a multifuel stove then it can burn coal or wood and that coal can be anywhere between bitumous to nearly pure carbon in anthracite. Even peat will burn if dry. The difference is that when burning wood you drive off volatiles that have to burn in a flame above the firebed, with anthracite you have to gasify the carbon to carbon monoxide and then burn that above the firebed, so wood tends to need 5 times more air for burning the volatiles whereas the coal needs similar amounts below the firebed for gasification as it needs above to burn the gases. Your stove is putting a lot of heat into the water compared with the heat into the room, what makes you think it is inefficient? If you have dry fuel the only losses in efficiency are in the heat that exits the flue. These will be sensible heat (e.g. what is the temperature of the exhaust gases up the chimney) and the massflow up the chimney (e.g. is too much excess air or unburnt gases going up the chimney). If you see a lot of whitish yellow smoke then the wood is either smouldering or too wet. Blue smoke and your flame is being quenched somehow, black smoke not enough secondary (over the firebed) air.

what type of pump is it?

Yes the brickworks was probably similar to Swallow tiles but for a student on piecework you could just about make the same in a day as an agricultural labourer in a week. One of the higglers doing hazel coppice alongside us used to do it for years.

Yes this is what I thought but have never tested it. The thing is whatever the overall moisture content the sap solution within the cell membrane is much more concentrated. There will be little sugar in the vessels until spring. I really ought to read up on this.

Some of the reason for this was the availability of labour, most rural workers were needed for other farm work in the summer. Another was to do with the durability of the produce, winter felled wood is less likely to be eaten by microbes for a couple of reasons. Try bending a bit of birch or willow whippy material that has been cut mid summer and left for three weeks.

My posts, I won't call them advice, will have the professionals grimacing, I am only saying what I have done to keep my old equipment running when the alternative was scrapping or when spares were too expensive or unavailable. A dealer could not risk returning a customer's machine without using parts he could offer warranty of some sort.

Yes just put them somewhere dry and airy and they will get below the moisture content that fungi like. This is much the same as I have seen from batches that were warmed up in the kiln and then removed before the moisture content had been reduced enough, the warm humid conditions allowed the fungal spores to germinate and the fuzz is hyphae spreading.

It should be easier than that and not worth the loss of oil nor risk of cross contamination. It may well be that the hotter pump is showing oil being recirculated within the pump but I wouldn't buy a replacement without some simple tests. Normally the pump is protected by a pressure relief valve, if a service is stalled then the pressure relief valve should blow off and return oil to tank. If the pump fails to reach pressure then the relief valve does npot open, does not return oil to tank and the oil recirculates in the pump, possibly making it warmer. The first indication of a pump failing is when it only reaches relief pressure at a higher rpm, so under normal working the pressure rises to relief pressure (say 2000psi) and holds that pressure as the relief valve dumps excess to tank, with a worn pump the pressure rises slowly with rpm until finally the relief pressure is reached and then is held steady as relief opens and the excess pressure is dumped. This dynamic testing is what the device @aspenarb posted does but an inference can be made with just a pressure gauge.

It's what I use, 600 grit. The Nikasil is only 0.4mm thick so once the aluminium pick up is dissolved you shouldn't need to do much.

In my post I should have made it clear you must have a new ring. You can use a broken bit of the old ring to cut the ring grove by turning it around and rolling it into the groove so it cuts the smeared aluminium. This is by no means an ideal fix. The ring not only seals against the cylinder wall but also between the top and bottom of the groove so it will never be as good as a new ring in a new piston.

It has seized, maybe from running on neat petrol, it looks near new so not as likely to be an air leak. Don't try and do any more with that coarse scratching paper, it needs something much finer but only after any aluminium from the piston that has friction welded itself to the bore is removed by chemical means. Some use acid but I use repeated applications of a gel type caustic oven cleaner applied with a cotton but. I keep doing it and leaving for an hour or so until there is no white residue from the chemical. Then wash off thoroughly. If you cannot find a new piston I'd risk cleaning up the ring lands and smoothing the piston skirt and re using it, it will never be as good as new and will need considerate use. The bit you have tried to clean is not as important as the bit above the exhaust port.

Does the top bit come off? This is essential on a narrowboat where the freeboard is sometimes only a couple of inches above the deck, indeed with Isabella we have had to shift bags of coal to the front to get an even keel to pass under a bridge. Is the Morso S11 one that could be used on boats, you recommended it to me for a small room